Kittery gets law enforcement grants

KITTERY, Maine — Local police got a helping hand recently in the form of $41,930 in grants aimed at improving efforts in a variety of areas of enforcement.

Thanks to grants from the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Highway Safety, officers will now have state of the art computer equipment and funding for increased patrols and safety checks.

Approximately $31,500 has been awarded to the department to pay for nine Panasonic CF-30 laptop computers to replace all cruiser computers.

The department also received $4,950 for speed enforcement patrol, which will allows for an off-duty officer to conduct speed enforcement in targeted areas, starting in May and continuing through the summer.

Another $3,500 was awarded for impaired driving enforcement, meaning there will be scheduled OUI patrols and roadblocks now through September.

An additional $1,890 was also awarded so the department can develop a program for the enforcement and education of seat belt use, which will allow for patrols during the month of May.